AEST to JST
Sydney to Tokyo.
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All date & timeQuestions
What time is JST when it is 12:00 AEST?
10:00. Japan Standard Time is 2 hours behind Australian Eastern Time in January and 1 hour behind it in July. The gap moves because Sydney observes daylight saving and Tokyo does not, so the difference between them is not a fixed number. A 9-to-5 day in Sydney overlaps a 9-to-5 day in Tokyo for 6 hours, between 11:00 and 17:00 AEST.
Is the difference between AEST and JST the same all year?
No, and this is the pair where that matters. Japan Standard Time is 2 hours behind Australian Eastern Time in January and 1 hour behind it in July. The gap moves because Sydney observes daylight saving and Tokyo does not, so the difference between them is not a fixed number. Booking a recurring call across these two and assuming one number will drift by an hour twice a year — check the date, not just the zones.
What do AEST and JST actually stand for?
AEST is Australian Eastern Time, the zone covering Sydney, currently UTC+11 in January. JST is Japan Standard Time, covering Tokyo, at UTC+9. Southern hemisphere daylight saving runs October to April — the opposite half of the year to Europe and North America. So the gap between Sydney and London swings by two hours across the year, not one.
Anything worth knowing about Japan Standard Time?
Fixed at UTC+9 with no daylight saving — Japan tried it briefly after the war and abandoned it. Korea runs on the same offset, so Tokyo and Seoul clocks always match.
When is a good time to call between Sydney and Tokyo?
A 9-to-5 day in Sydney overlaps a 9-to-5 day in Tokyo for 6 hours, between 11:00 and 17:00 AEST. If the call has to happen outside that, the fairer arrangement is usually to alternate which side takes the awkward hour rather than always asking the same one.
How it works, and more about aest → jst
The difference, and whether you can rely on it
In January, Japan Standard Time is 2 hours behind Australian Eastern Time — UTC+11 against UTC+9. In July it is 1 hour behind instead. That is the part worth carrying away: this is not a pair you can memorise a single number for.
Why the gap moves
Sydney observes daylight saving; Tokyo does not. So the clocks in one city move twice a year while the other stays put, and the distance between them changes with them. Any calculation you did in one season is wrong in the other. The converter above uses the date you give it rather than today’s offset, which is the only way to get a future meeting right when it falls on the other side of a changeover.
When you can both be at a desk
A standard working day in Sydney overlaps one in Tokyo between 11:00 and 17:00 AEST — 6 hours. Anything outside that asks somebody to start early or finish late.
Reading the abbreviations literally will mislead you
AEST strictly means one fixed offset, but almost nobody uses it that way. People write it to mean the time in Sydney, which shifts if that city observes daylight saving — and it does. This page follows the common usage rather than the strict one, because the strict reading gives an answer that is wrong for a good part of the year.
Southern hemisphere daylight saving runs October to April — the opposite half of the year to Europe and North America. So the gap between Sydney and London swings by two hours across the year, not one. Fixed at UTC+9 with no daylight saving — Japan tried it briefly after the war and abandoned it. Korea runs on the same offset, so Tokyo and Seoul clocks always match.
Scheduling something recurring
For a one-off, the converter above is the whole job. For a standing meeting across these two zones, where the gap changes, it is worth putting the invitation in a calendar that stores the zone rather than the time — then the changeover is handled for you and nobody has to remember. If you are trying to find a slot across more than two places at once, the meeting planner shows a whole day at a glance instead.